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'Diablo 3' Patch Locks Down New Accounts For Up To 72 Hours [Updated]

Blizzard has patched its latest game, Diablo III, preventing access to the full title for new owners of digital copies of the RPG for up to 72 hours.

The demon Error 37 was killed in Act One. In Act Two, the demon Error 12 rears its beastly head.

See update below:

The unfortunate saga of Blizzard’s Diablo III continues. Under the latest patch, “owners” of digital copies of the game will be locked down for up to 72 hours with only limited access to the game. Here’s what new buyers of the hack-and-slash RPG can expect, according to Eurogamer:

Act I up to the Skeleton King is available

Level 13 cap

Matchmaking available only with other Starter Edition players

No Auction House access (Real Money or Gold)

Global Play is not available

Players attempting to connect to Diablo III Starter Edition in a region other than their Battle.net account’s home region will receive Error 12

“Digital purchases do require a review period before they kick over from Starter to Full editions,” a Blizzard spokesperson said. “We apologise for the inconvenience, but it is a necessary step to combat fraud and other malicious activities that can weaken everyone’s play experience. The delay is no longer than three days, and is often much quicker than that. Hang tight. :)”

Hang tight? Smiley face? I realize this is the internet, but come on. When we were told we’d be fighting to save the world from ancient demons, we didn’t know Blizzard was included in the list of obstacles.

Indeed. Legitimate customers seem to always get the short end of the stick whenever it comes to combating fraud or piracy. Rather than locking down new accounts, Blizzard could provide an offline mode or send its Real Money Auction House into early retirement. Neither of these options is fool proof, but then again neither is locking down paying customers’ accounts for three days. Offering customer refunds is a nice gesture, but won’t fix the game.

If you thought nothing could surprise you in this ongoing debacle, think again.

Update: Blizzard has responded with an update to this and other reports:

“For security reasons and to help ensure the integrity of the game and auction house service, players who purchase the digital version of Diablo III may have to wait until payment verification is complete before they can access certain game features. (See below for a full list of restrictions associated with digital purchases.) While most payments are approved and restrictions are lifted within a day, in some cases it can take up to 72 hours to complete this process.

“Similar to World of Warcraft, these restrictions were put in place to deter credit card fraud, which in turn helps reduce gold spam and other harmful activities that can have a negative impact on the game experience for everyone.

“However, as an unintended consequence of these security measures, players who purchase the game digitally after patch 1.0.3 are temporarily being capped at level 13 and not able to proceed beyond Act I. We are working to correct this as soon as possible and will provide another update when we have more details to share.

“Aside from the two unintended restrictions noted above, below are the standard security-related restrictions that will be in place for digital purchases until payment verification is complete:

No public game access for unverified digital purchasers

No auction house access (real-money or gold) for unverified digital purchasers

Unverified digital purchasers are not able to chat in any public or game channels

Unverified digital purchasers cannot attach a custom message to friend requests, but they can send/accept friend requests, and play with their friends

Global Play is not available for unverified digital purchasers

“Again, we want to be perfectly clear that these are temporary restrictions (often lifted within a day and at most 72 hours) associated with digital purchases for the protection of players. We appreciate player feedback and will continue to evaluate the best methods for ensuring a positive game experience for everyone.”

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This is just pathetic, blaming fraud when the real issue is their lack of security for players. First, they can’t even keep servers online. Then people have their accounts compromised and all their items taken. And now, paying customers can’t even play the full version of the game during a 3 day grace period (which is NOT a very short amount of time). I guess these three horrible issues are more reasons why it’s called Diablo 3.

I was actually going to buy this game, bored with most games I have now, but after the server issues, I’m really glad I stepped back and examined it.

Agreed. Especially when they use the excuse of the fraud affecting customers playing experience. Interesting… So in order to combat this playing experience issue… we will affect your playing experience.

i have played diablo 3 since launch and I personally haven’t been affected by fraud. The servers were shaky the first few days, but now they are fine. Only thing I would consider annoying is gold spammer, though I don’t think you can play an online pc game these days without that.

Fraud is actually the last thing that is preventing me from playing diablo 3. Why can’t more companies be like Valve or From Software? getting tired of this attitude of “You will suck it up if you want to play our games”

Here’s the thing I don’t think a lot of these companies understand: eventually, we will no longer want to play your games. I know that’s true of myself and BioWare. I have no desire to ever play another BioWare title. The ending of Mass Effect 3 sucked, but it was really their godawful PR staff and complete inability to not be totally condescending that put the final nail in the coffin.

It’s funny…two years ago BioWare was one of my favorite gaming companies. Now I can’t help but hope they go out of business. Amazing how quickly things change.